SYDNEY, Jan. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Novogen Limited
(ASX:NRT; NASDAQ:NVGN), an Australian/US
biotechnology company, today announced an important discovery in
its regenerative medicine program that has delivered a key
proof-of-concept step forward in the quest to develop drugs capable
of stimulating the function of brain tissue stem cells.
Regenerative medicine is concerned with repairing or replacing
tissue lost due to age, disease, damage or congenital defects. In
the case of the brain, damage associated with stroke, head trauma
or neurodegenerative disease represents a very significant unmet
clinical need for such therapies.
Novogen scientists now in an important scientific breakthrough
have identified a family of compounds with an ability to promote
the growth and activity of normal brain stem cells.
The dominant approach being taken to brain regeneration is the
introduction of tissue stem cells that have been cultured
outside of the body. However, delivery of these cells through the
skull is very invasive and, so far, these cells seem to be
susceptible to the same constraints that limit the resident stem
cell population.
Work in the 1990's showed that the old adage, 'We continue to
grow brain cells until age 21, and from then on it's all downhill',
was, in fact, untrue. Close examination revealed that part of the
hippocampus, the main site of learning and memory within the brain,
is constantly renewed throughout life by a pool of dividing stem
cells. A second discrete pool of stem cells generates daughter
cells that can migrate to sites of brain damage to facilitate
repair. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not currently
understood, these migrating stem cells fail to produce enough new
neurons in the damage site to provide substantial recovery.
Novogen adopted the alternative approach of seeking drugs that
would promote the migration of stem cells to the site of injury,
seek to retain those stem cells at the damaged site, and then
promote their regenerative capacities. This offered the potential
of a non-invasive, well-tolerated, medicinal approach to a
widespread problem.
In April 2014, Novogen established
a partnership with Genea Biocells, an Australian company with
world-leading expertise in the production, growth and development
of human embryonic stem cells. The original purpose of that
collaboration was to mine the Company's super-benzopyran drug
technology platform for new therapies with the capacity to repair
aberrant stem cells in people with various neurodegenerative and
musculedegenerative disorders such as muscular dystrophies and
motor neurone diseases.
That program recently was extended to look at the ability of
that same drug platform to stimulate the growth of healthy brain
stem cells to create new nerve cells. That has been achieved in
what is the first key step in the path to the development of a new
family of drugs to treat brain injury.
About Novogen Limited
Novogen is a public, Australian drug-development company whose
shares trade on both the Australian Securities Exchange ('NRT') and
NASDAQ ('NVGN'). The Novogen group includes US-based, CanTx Inc, a
joint venture company with Yale
University.
Novogen has two main drug technology platforms:
super-benzopyrans (SBPs) and anti-tropomyosins (ATMs). SBP
compounds have been designed to kill the full heterogeneity of
cells within a tumor, including the cancer stem cells. The
molecular target is a trans-membrane electron-transfer pump
mechanism oncogene that is common to all cancer cells. Cells die by
respiratory distress and mitochondrial disintegration.
The ATM compounds target the micro-filament component of the
cancer cell's cytoskeleton and have been designed to combine with
anti-microtubular drugs (taxanes, vinca alkaloids) to produce
comprehensive and fatal destruction of the cancer cell
cytoskeleton.
The Company pipeline comprises three SBP drug candidates
(TRXE-002, TRXE-009, TRXE-0025) and one ATM drug candidate
('Anisina').
Further information is available on our websites
www.novogen.com
For more information please contact:
Corporate
Contact
|
Media
Enquiries
|
Dr. Graham
Kelly
|
Cristyn
Humphreys
|
Executive Chairman
& CEO Novogen Group
|
Chief Operating
Officer Novogen Group
|
Graham.Kelly@novogen.com
|
Cristyn.Humphreys@novogen.com
|
+61 (0) 2 9472 4100
|
+61 (0) 2 9472 4111
|
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SOURCE Novogen Ltd